By Sean Gardiner, David Cazares and John Holland Staff Writers

A college professor and his wife have been indicted on charges of being illegal foreign agents and passing non-classified information to Cuba, accusations that evoke the long-running espionage saga involving South Florida and the nearby communist regime.

Florida International University education professor Carlos Alvarez, 61, and his wife Elsa, 55, were ordered held without bail Monday after U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton sided with a federal prosecutor's argument that the couple would leave their five children and flee to Cuba if granted bail.

The couple did not enter pleas in Miami federal court to the charge they failed to register themselves as "agents of a foreign government" with the U.S. Attorney General's office.

The Alvarezes were not charged with the more serious count of espionage, but the indictment unsealed Monday states they were trained and equipped by Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence agency and recruited "young people of Cuban heritage" in the United States to be spies. The charge carries up to a 10-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine.

Carlos Alvarez became a U.S. citizen while attending the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1972, according to FIU records. After obtaining his doctorate in clinical psychology there, he was hired by FIU in 1974. Now a tenured associate professor in FIU's Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, he earns $66,639, and in 2001 wrote a book called Ethnic Identity: Understanding Contemporary Perspectives. He also lectured around the country about the Cuban diaspora.

But authorities charge that the steady and respected academician detailed in his FIU dossier was only part of Alvarez's identity. Since at least 1977, Alvarez also worked as a covert Cuban intelligence operative, the indictment alleges. His wife, who holds a master's degree in social work and has been employed as a $36,215 coordinator in FIU's Counseling and Psychology Services Center, has been an illegal Cuban agent since 1982, it says.

FIU officials declined to comment.

Authorities said as far as they know, the Alvarezes received no money or other financial reward for their covert work. Prosecutor Brian Frazier said much of the information they provided was about the U.S. political situation or prominent Cuban-Americans in South Florida. And they passed along the name of at least one FBI agent.

Frazier said the two used an elaborate encryption system provided by Cuba to communicate with their handlers via short-wave radio and carried messages to and from Cuba using their academic positions as cover.

"These were highly placed and very well-regarded operatives in the United States," Frazier said.

Though the information the couple is accused of providing wasn't classified, some of it, like the names of law enforcement officers, is "sensitive on its face," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Law enforcement officials did not say what led them to the Alvarezes, revealing only that the couple was interviewed by FBI agents over the summer and their voluntary statements led to their arrests on Friday.

The indictment is the latest chapter in the long-running Cuba-vs-America spy saga. In August, an appeals court ordered new trials for the so-called "Cuban Five," who had been convicted in 2001 of being part of a network of Cubans spying on the United States. The appeals judges ruled the men did not receive a fair trial in Miami.

Information from The Associated Press supplemented this report.

Sean Gardiner can be reached at stgardiner@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4514.

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